Altering the economies of innovation with a customized Cloud

The potential of Cloud Computing is unquestionably a game changer — especially when you can combine the cost and speed-of-deployment advantages of public cloud services with the power to granularly choose deployment and ownership options.

This sort of Shape-Your-Own Cloud alternative can make a huge bottom-line difference, as one of our clients recently reported. He cut his overall IT spend by 66 percent and has also reduced his maintenance costs by 99 percent — yes, you see that right: 99 percent. Plus, he has seen a year-over-year CapEx savings of $200,000. And best of all — his IT staff is now focused, as he says, “where it should” — on supporting end-users.

But this client did not — could not — achieve these results with cast-in-concrete, one-size-fits-all cloud services. Why not? Because these crude, limited clouds did not give him the control he needed over service levels, the location of his data, or his data’s security.

Instead, he customized his Cloud so he could get the control he needed at a cost he could afford.

This kind of Shape-Your-Own Cloud deployment really does alter the economics of innovation in just the way described by this consultant from Deloitte’s U.S. technology practice:

“Cloud-based flexibility, agility, and scalability are becoming the new differentiators. Economic advantage may no longer be limited to those who can invest capital to innovate at high volume or cost. Cloud computing alters the economics of innovation and growth, and restructures customer relationship economics, allowing far deeper relationships with customers at much lower cost.”

In my next blog, I’ll begin counting down six key best practices for making Cloud Computing as effective as possible in your organization.